"Andrea, get up. Come on, get up," a voice, her mother, demands of her, bringing her slowly awake. "We've got to be there in a half an hour," she continues as she tosses something onto the bed and as she leaves, she asks, "You didn't wet the bed, did you?"
Seeing her youngest daughter shake her head, her mommy leaves the room and as Andrea slides out of bed, she can hear her mother waking Sahara. Suddenly it all comes back to her; the arcade, the prizes and the fact that she has gone from being a sixteen year old boy to a five year old girl. Looking at the dress and tights lying on the bed, Andrea tries to sort out what's going on.
And then she remembers that she and her sister are supposed to be getting their photo taken today. Stripping off the nightgown and removing her panties, Andrea opens the dresser and takes a fresh pair of underwear out and begins to get dressed.
Dressed, Andrea leaves her room, thinking to herself, "This is probably my one and only chance to return to my former self. I need to get back to that arcade."
As she eats breakfast, Sahara's friends leave and it is shortly afterward that Andrea finds herself being buckled into a car seat next her sister. A short drive later, and Andrea can't believe her luck as they pull into the parking lot in front of the mall that has the arcade. "Maybe I won't have to sneak away," Andrea thinks to herself as her mother unbuckles her from the car seat.
The portraits take about an hour and a half and by that time Andrea is really bored, but happy that she got to go first. Afterward her mommy asked them, "Okay, she'll we go get lunch?" but both Andrea and her sister wanted to wander around the mall instead.
It's only as they're passing the arcade, that Andrea gets an idea and pointing at the arcade, she asks, "Mommy can we go in there? Please? Please, please, please, pleeeeeaaaase?"
Her mother sighs and asks, "Why do you even want to go in there? It's just an arcade."
Andrea shuffled her feat and said, "Because."
Seeing that her daughter really wanted to enter, Andrea and Sahara's mom took them by the hand and entered. Upon entering, she announced, "See, nothing more then an arcade."
At which point Andrea spied the machines that had started all this and pointing to them she asked, "Mommy, can I get a prize from one of those things? Please? I'll be good and try not beg for anything else, ever again. Please?"
Handing her a quarter, Andrea's mother said, "One prize," and then turned to Sahara and asked, "Would you like to get something?" to which Sahara only shook her head.
Placing the quarter into the slot, Andrea slowly turned the crank like handle and silently prayed, "Please, please, please, let it be something that will return me to being Andrew again. Please, please, please, pleeeeeaaaase."
Familiar sounding noises issued forth and after a bit there was a click and lifting up the latch, Andrea found a greenish yellow plastic egg. Without really thinking about it, she ran back to her mother and exclaimed, "Mommy, mommy! Look what I got! It's an egg!"
Her mother gently took it from her and said, "Let's put it away somewhere safe so you won't loose it."
Desperately wanting to open it, Andrea tried to come up with an argument, but in the end settled for her mother to place it in her pocket. After the arcade, they visited several toy stores, stopped for lunch in the food court and then returned to pick up the developed pictures. After that, Andrea and Sahara's mom dropped them off at their grandparents home while she went to work. Sometime during all this time, Andrea forgot all about the egg and at one point, she forgot she was ever was a sixteen year old male name Andrew,
It was only later, around nine o'clock, when mother came to pick them up, that Andrea remembered the egg. As her mother fastened her into the car seat, she asked, "Mommy, can I have my toy?"
Her mother looked confused for a minutes and then reached into her pocket and handed Andrea the egg.
Home, Sahara disappeared into her room and Andrea went to her room. Thinking, "I hope this is something that can fix this whole magick mess," she pushed the two halves of the egg inward and tried to twist it open.
At first it wouldn't budge and Andrea was just about to give up when the egg popped open and out rolled two rings; one with a letters HF on the top and the with the letters MCTS printed on the top. Unable to really comprehend the letters, she wouldn't start school for another year, Andrea picked up the ring with the letters MCTS on it.
Sliding it over her finger, she twisted it back and forth as she stood up, wondering if she should try on any of her costumes with the ring.
Suddenly she was over come with a tingling sensation and looking toward the mirror, she gasped as yellow fur began to sprout up and down her arms and her nose and mouth began to merge into a snout. Her ears ballooned outward as her long red hair was drawn up into her head and yellow fur replaced it. Over her ears two blue bows appeared, while her dress turned into a pair of purple bib-overall shorts and a pink T shirt.
And then it was finished and Andrea found herself looking at a live version of one of her favourite cartoon characters; Molly Elizabeth Cunningham.
Curious, she took the ring off and placed it in the jewelry box her mother had given her, noting that she didn't revert back to her human form. Curious even still, she picked up the other ring and slipping it on, she stood before the mirror and began to twist it.
The changes happened faster then the first changes and withing seconds, Andrea was looking at her human self.
"Wow," she thought as she took off the ring and placed that in her jewelry box. Somewhere in her mind, Andrea knew that she'd never return to being Andrew, but something else, the child he'd become, said that it was cool because he could relive his childhood, even if it was as a girl.
Sitting down at plastic tea table, Andrea decided she wanted tp live life the way she was. After all, the two new prizes certainly made up for the trouble the first two caused. After a bit, her mother came in and told her to begin getting ready for bed, and embracing her new life, Andrea nodded at what her mother had just said and began to take off her dress.